The Secret Doctrine Vol. I

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE

The Theosophical Movement A spiritual and philosophical movement founded to study the nature of reality and the laws of the universe. of the nineteenth century began in 1875. The present edition of The Secret Doctrine marks, therefore, the mid-point of the hundred-year cycle of the Theosophical Movement between 1875 and 1975. According to the teachings of H. P. Blavatsky, this is the time when a Messenger from the Great Lodge of Masters In Theosophy, a hidden group of enlightened teachers who guide human evolution. will again appear in the Western world.

As originally written, The Secret Doctrine was intended to be published in four volumes, but only the first two volumes were ever issued. The remaining two volumes were withheld at the time and have never been published; the reasons for this were clearly indicated at the close of the second volume of the Original Edition.

Besides the Original Edition of 1888, two other editions of that work have been published. One of these is the so-called "Third and Revised Edition," first published in 1893. This edition contains more than forty thousand alterations, many of which are actual corruptions of the original text. It is, therefore, in no way to be trusted by students who desire access to the authentic wording of H. P. Blavatsky's Great Message. The so-called Third and Revised Edition, as published in recent years, also includes a spurious term: false or fake; not genuine. "Third Volume" originally issued in 1897, six years after the death of H. P. Blavatsky. This spurious "Third Volume" forms no part of the genuine Secret Doctrine of H. P. Blavatsky.

Still another edition of The Secret Doctrine has been issued in four volumes. Except for additional notes and extraneous sectarian matter Information related to specific subgroups or factions within the movement., it is virtually an accurate reproduction of the original text of the first two volumes of that famous work. However, because it was created from re-set type, its exact authenticity cannot be depended upon without a laborious comparison with the Original Edition.

The present Semi-centennial Edition of H. P. Blavatsky's monumental work { is? a photographic reproduction—word for word, line for line, and page for page—of? the authentic Original Edition, as written and edited by H. P. Blavatsky herself. 1925? The two volumes of the Original Edition are here bound in one volume for the c?onvenience of students. In all other respects, it is unchanged and unaltered, an?d can therefore be wholly relied upon as an exact facsimile term: an exact copy or reproduction. of the Original Ed?ition.